Monthly Archives: June 2012

On the labor market there are job seekers and successful job seekers. The former are facing longer job hunt and poorly paid work in unattractive and lousy firms. The latter search for a job less than a couple of months, need at most five interviews to get the position and earn higher salaries doing better jobs in better positioned firms.

On the other hand, companies have big problems to find adequate co-workers. It’s not a rare case that employers reject perfect candidates because they came unprepared, wrote desperate resumes or couldn’t handle an interview – still, they were appropriate candidates, they just couldn’t convince the employer into realizing the truth.

Job search is a sale! You are selling your work profile, your skills, knowledge and experience. Similar to any other sale, this one needs good product (career profile), sales letter (resume) and excellent sales presentation (interview). In order to make a sale (get a job) you have to know what the customer’s requirements and expectations are.

So, the first step is to research the employing company and the job you are applying for. Every application should be tailored up to reflect the employers requirements, as well as the position you are applying. Ensure the hiring manager that you’re interested in that particular position in that particular firm.

Resume and cover letter should be well-composed and clearly written with most recent jobs and most relevant experiences listed first. All information provided in your resume should fit into one page because the employers are busy people and when a job gets posted they additionally receive tons of emails and letters from the candidates. They don’t have time nor will to read five pages long CV or cover letter. Make the job application concise and clear saying much in few chosen words.

List your contact information on the top of your CV and cover letter so that the hiring manager doesn’t have to search for your contact details because if they have to scan for your details, there’s a huge possibility that your application will end up in a trash can. Write your name first in a slightly bigger letters so it pops out and your full street address, state, email and phone number in somewhat smaller, but be careful not to use any abbreviations or nonprofessional emails for they will make your application look childish and not serious.

I some job application forms there’s a question about your hobbies and interests. If you think that part to be irrelevant, you’re wrong. Your free activities tell tons about your personality – if you are playing football or other multiplayer sport, the employers will see that you work well within a team, if you like independent traveling on budget, they may conclude that you are well organized person ready to take risks. So, don’t miss to fill in this section, but don’t list too many hobbies since you don’t want your future employer to think the job will suffer for these.

In the end – do you know how the job application of an average candidate looks like? It looks exactly the same as 95 per cent of other applications the employer receives. So, be smart and create an efficient resume that will instantly draw the hiring manager’s attention. Tell him the exact information he wants, focus on important aspects of your career and describe them the way to be related to the desired job description. And proofread! Grammar as well as the spelling mistakes won’t impress anybody but they will automatically label you as superficial and sloppy.